Canada's summer season job marketplace for college students is booming as positions high prepandemic ranges - The Globe and Mail

Zachary Fortier, information editor at The Hyperlink, within the newsroom on Concordia College campus on June 28.Karene-Isabelle Jean-Baptist/The Globe and Mail

After two years of downturns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer season job marketplace for college and faculty college students in Canada is beginning sturdy as employers are hiring extra candidates and reporting a excessive variety of job vacancies.

Summer time job postings have greater than doubled throughout the nation since earlier than the pandemic. In early June, they had been up by 114 per cent in contrast with June, 2019, in line with Brendon Bernard, a senior economist on the world job web site Certainly, who’s primarily based in Toronto.

The retail sector is main the summer season hiring, accounting for greater than a 3rd of summer season staff. The lodging and meals providers sector is second. The remainder of summer season employment spreads throughout a number of industries, together with info, tradition and recreation, sports activities and camp counsellors.

“That is the primary time because the begin of the pandemic that we’re seeing actions return to regular and it exhibits that it’s actually going to be a very sizzling summer season job market,” Mr. Bernard stated. “Alternatives for these on the lookout for seasonal jobs are on the rise.”

After two years of lockdowns and layoffs, teenagers return to summer jobs

In 2020 and most of final yr, in the course of the top of the pandemic, the summer season job market was weak. Summer time camps, vacationer websites, recreation centres, lodges and eating places had been closed or didn’t function at full capability. College and faculty college students had a hard time finding jobs due to COVID restrictions. Even when jobs had been obtainable, college students say they had been unable to barter good offers or discover jobs that matched their search.

Kachi Ezekwem, a fifth-year mechanical and software program engineering pupil at McGill College, discovered a summer season job with the funding financial institution Morgan Stanley in February this yr. In 2020, he didn’t obtain any job gives due to the pandemic. Final yr, Mr. Ezekwem stated, the summer season job market was nonetheless troublesome for college kids and he solely acquired a suggestion in Might.

“Within the area of tech, there are a number of gives, however they’re rigorous and aggressive,” Mr. Ezekwem stated. “I had many gives in comparison with final yr.”

Zachary Fortier, a second-year journalism and political science pupil at Montreal’s Concordia College, utilized for a lot of jobs for the summer season of 2020 and acquired no gives. Final month, he acquired a suggestion as information editor at The Link, a neighborhood campus-run newspaper.

“My job is to maintain the newspaper working all through the summer season and preserve the scholars engaged with what is occurring within the metropolis,” Mr. Fortier stated. “So many younger folks like me have had the identical unhappy experiences in the course of the pandemic. Even those that acquired gives, it was not what they actually needed.”

Mr. Fortier stated pandemic lockdowns had a big impact on younger folks, who weren’t capable of finding summer season jobs or discount as strongly as they usually would. “What was obtainable then wasn’t essentially assembly folks’s necessities,” he stated. “I feel there may be a lot adapting and so many individuals have to alter their strategies of discovering a job.”

Sarah Stern, a double-major pupil in English Literature and European Affairs on the College of Toronto, had no bother discovering a job this summer season. “I feel there are extra jobs now in comparison with the previous few years due to the pandemic,” Ms. Stern stated. “It wasn’t troublesome for me to search out one.”

The rise in summer season jobs additionally means college students can select from quite a lot of postings and negotiate higher preparations than in earlier years. Ms. Stern will probably be working with the federal authorities in Ottawa, and she or he stated there have been many decisions for college kids and most of her buddies have discovered jobs for the summer season. She added that she was fortunate to search out an employer who agreed to a versatile work mode that may permit her to journey in August.

The rise in summer season jobs is an economy-wide pattern, Mr. Bernard stated, reflecting a surge in alternatives and total job postings in Canada. “This can be a pattern that basically constructed up all through final yr into this yr, the place [the] employer hiring urge for food throughout a complete vary of various sectors within the Canadian financial system has actually elevated.”

Mr. Fortier stated pandemic lockdowns had a big impact on younger folks, who weren’t capable of finding summer season jobs or discount as strongly as they usually would.Karene-Isabelle Jean-Baptist/The Globe and Mail

The unemployment price for college kids who will probably be returning to high school within the fall is decrease than it has been for fairly a while. Statistics Canada information exhibits that the employment charges for returning college students aged 15 to 24 elevated sharply in Might this yr, with almost half – 49.8 per cent – employed. This was a rise from a report low 39.5 per cent in Might, 2021, amid COVID-19 lockdowns, and stronger than 47 per cent previous to the pandemic in Might, 2019.

“We’re seeing one of many tightest labour markets in latest historical past,” stated Andrew Fields, a senior analyst at Statistics Canada. “There are extra youths employed this summer season than every other time. We’re seeing conditions the place employers are hiring and report that they’ve a report of job vacancies.”

Canada’s low unemployment price of 5.1 per cent has created a report excessive variety of job vacancies. Mr. Fields stated that is translating into greater employment charges for younger folks, whether or not they’re college students or a part of the final labour drive.

Mr. Bernard is optimistic in regards to the sturdy summer season job market this yr. Nonetheless, he’s involved that rising uncertainty in regards to the world financial system and inventory markets may finally have an effect on the Canadian labour market.

“Whereas there are jilters within the world financial system, the summer season job market is a little more contained,” he stated. “The truth that employers are on the lookout for new hires signifies that folks in search of seasonal jobs will be capable of discover one thing.”

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